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Former Formula 1 Driver Slams Current Cars: "The Racing is Obviously Worse"

For years, die-hard, old-school fans have been criticizing the quality of the ever-rarer dogfights in Formula 1 these days. And when former drivers speak out against the current regulations and current cars, it's just more fuel for those critics.
The 2020 Ferrari of Charles Leclerc 6 photos
Photo: ferrari.com
World Champion Lewis Hamilton getting a taste of his new 2020 MercedesValtteri Bottas out on track with the 2020 MercedesSebastian Vettel testing the 2020 FerrariLando Norris putting in a few laps in Barcelona test sessionCarlos Sainz in pre-season testing with the 2020 McLaren
The driver in question this time is Karun Chandhok, formerly of HRT and Lotus. The Indian, currently an F1 pundit for Sky Sports, spoke to racefans about the differences between cars from back in his days (2010-11) and today. In particular, he criticized the higher weight limit on the cars.

"Obviously we’ve got the hybrid and the bigger tires and the downforce. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the way F1 has gone in that direction", Chandhok said. "We have a strange situation where the cars have got bigger, fatter and heavier and therefore, in theory, the lap times would be slower. But to compensate, they added a ton of downforce and bigger tires so the lap time’s faster, but the racing is obviously worse."

In 2010, when Chandhok was driving for Hispania Racing, the minimum weight limit was 610 kilos (1345 lbs). Now it's 745 kilos (1642 lbs), putting more stress on the tires and making the cars a lot harder to throw about on the race track.

"The 2011 cars were so agile. The drivers, they were on edge. The drivers really had to be on top of it because they darted around and they moved around, they were skittish and edgy to drive. Whereas now… I have driven the Williams from 2017 and the Mercedes from 2019. And particularly the W10 was a great car, won the world championship and dominated last year. But you can feel the weight, you’re edging towards sportscar territory", Chandhok added.

The increased weight limit was motivated by Formula 1 wanting teams to increase the safety of the cars, especially after the death of Jules Bianchi in 2014 - a time when most people felt assured that you could no longer die in an F1 car, being twenty years after the deadly crashes of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger. But, as the ultimate driving machines, F1 cars are meant to be scary, according to Chandhok:

"With all due respect, I think George Russell and Lando [Norris] and Alex Albon, they’re all great drivers and great rookies. But they shouldn’t be able to get into a Formula 1 car and be within three-tenths of the pace on their first day. It should be a scary, terrifying experience like it used to be. The first day that you drive a car should be utterly terrifying in F1."

Well, Karun Chandhok certainly wasn't within three-tenths of the pace at any point when he was racing in Formula 1. He took part in only 11 races and his best result was a lowly 14th.
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